How to Home Gym - A Complete Guide

Safety first, obviously. I’m sure we have all the seen the recent training at home fail compilation videos and we don’t want to add to them. We want to think about the safety of ourselves, of anyone else we live with, and keeping our walls, floors, furniture etc safe from damage. So, it’s a good idea to create your own ‘gym’ space at home, which is kept as clear as possible from anything that might get hurt or hurt you. Personally, I threw my couch away to make space for a weightlifting platform in my lounge. Think about your priorities here...if you live with others you may want to consider their thoughts before turning a room of your house into a gym. If you live alone though I say go for it.

Garages, car spots and back yards are also great areas to train. The weather is of course a consideration and making sure the surface you plan on using isn’t slippery. Yes, this may seem like common sense, but we have all seen the videos.

We do also want to consider things like noise and neighbours. You may live in a weirdly relaxed block of flats with people who don’t mind weights being thrown on the ground underneath them, or you may be bugging Mr Jones from next door by throwing your medicine ball at his wall while he’s trying to do his crossword. Keep it considerate.

When

Well, whenever you want, really. I have encouraged my clients to schedule their workouts using timetables and reminders. Much the same way as you would have a training routine when the gym was open, you can do the same thing training at home. If possible, try and stick to the same routine, or, use this opportunity to mix it up. For example, if getting up at 5:00am to train was an absolute struggle for you pre-COVID, sleep in for longer and train when your body feels ready.

One of the perks of our situation is that a lot of us have more time, we’re not commuting to and from work and this adds to our days. USE this time productively, if you were time-poor in your pre-COVID life, now is your chance to embrace more of an open schedule and find time for the things that are important. By this I mean training and sleep.

What

Now this is an exciting one. If you weren’t lucky enough to kit yourself out with all the bells and whistles before the lockdown, now is your chance to be creative. We all have different training styles and for the most part we can work on at least aspects of these outside of the gym. If you don’t have any equipment at all, this could be a chance to change your focus and try new things. We have a great many different group exercise classes on our virtual timetable for you to try, and outside of Monash there is a lot of content available online. If you had a personal trainer at the gym, reach out to them and ask for their suggestions on what you can do at home. Trust me, they’ll want you to stay motivated!

How

There are a few considerations when we think about HOW we are going to train. As when deliberating the outcome of any program, we firstly want to think about our intention. Are we trying to improve upper body strength, core, flexibility or cardio endurance? There are unlimited options here and it does help to narrow down what you want to work on so you can decide how you want to be training. There is no right or wrong here, everyone is different, and we all enjoy different forms of training.

For a lot of my clients, a combination of strength, cardio and mobility work has been the focus for them, so an example week for these goals may look like this:

Monday: Strength Program #1 (60 mins)

5 sets of 10-15 reps

Can be performed with body weight or additional weights.

Raise glute bridge (use step)

Split squats (use step)

Curtsey squat

Lateral step up

Overhead squat (use broomstick)

Forward & reverselunge

Wall sit hold

Tuesday: HIIT style cardio session #1 (45 mins)

Sub skipping for step ups if needed.

2– 3 rounds

Skips

60

Air squats

50

Mountain climbers

40

Push ups

30

Burpees

20

Tuck jump

10

Wednesday: Strength Program #2

5 sets of 10-15 reps

Can be performed using light weights OR household items like cans, jar or cats (kidding)